Are you a movie nerd who loves beer or a beer nerd who loves movies? Either way your weekend is taken care of. This Thursday through Saturday the Alamo Drafthouse will host the 5th Annual Off-Centered Film Fest, a multi-day event that brings beer experts, actors, writers, and directors together for a lot of offbeat, Western-themed, froth-enhanced film debauchery. more ›

Attention film and burrito lovers: this week, Chipotle is offering the chance to score free food and film festival tickets. All you have to do is text AFF to 888222 and reply "OK" by Friday, Oct. 7, and you'll be entered to win dinner for two at Chipotle and a set of film passes or producer badges to the 2011 Austin Film Festival. more ›

Can you decode nautical flags? Do you recognize the music in the background of this video? If so, you've got all the tools you need to decipher Fun Fun Fun Fest's first lineup leak of 2011. There are five reveals within this video, and the water theme is a hat tip to the festival's new location this year at Auditorium Shores. See if you can decode the video (a quick Google search should prove helpful) and share the answers in our comments section. The first two readers who post the right list and Tweet this post (@austinist) will get a pair of tickets to the festival. more ›

This month an ape-like entity will be taking over the Frank Erwin Center, and no, we're not talking about Curious George, though we very well could be. Instead, we're talking about the primate-centric hip-hop/rap collective Gorillaz, who will be stopping by in Austin to present their new, interactive, big ol' "Escape to Plastic Beach" tour show. more ›

As the calendar nears August, college football fans begin to get the itch for the new season. To help get local fans ready, Austinist is giving away a pair of tickets to the Texas Gridiron Kickoff, where Longhorns Coach Mack Brown talks about his team's 2010 lineup and previews the upcoming season. more ›

“What does Marsellus Wallace look like?” “Bring out the gimp.” “Royale with cheese.” “Anytime’s a good time for pie.” If, like most members of this hipster nation generation, you grew up loving Quentin Tarantino’s award-winning neo-noir, then you might want to scurry on down to the Alamo Drafthouse Village or Ritz for some good old fashioned shouting at the screen. more ›

We would all like for our lives to be harmonious—that each individual part would arrange itself in such a way that it is pleasing and complimentary to everything else—but the wish and the reality are most often found to be incongruous. Harmony (Justin Rice, lead singer of Bishop Allen and star of another indie flick, Mutual Appreciation), the eponymous character in Robert Byington's new film Harmony and Me, is a study in that schism, finding his life pitched into discord when he is summarily dismissed by his girlfriend, Jessica (the knockout Kristen Tucker). more ›

LOST and Mad Men are the stuff that water cooler salesmen everywhere dream of, the kind of television shows that inspire viewing parties and passionate debate for weeks after an episode has aired. How could Don Draper so callously break our hearts week after week? Do the writers on LOST actually know where the story is going? Have they ever known? Lucky for you, the Creator of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner and the Co-Creator of LOST, Damon Lindelof, will both be in town for the Austin Film Festival this week, and even luckier for you, you could win the chance to ask them the questions that you so desperately want, nay, need answered. more ›

Most people are aware of the work of Dan Auerbach, even if they don't know his name: his much-loved bluesy two-piece, The Black Keys, has played a couple ACLs and been a force in supreme guitar god awesomeness for almost the entirety of this decade. But now, for the first time, Auerbach has recorded an excellent minus-drummer-Patrick-Carney homage to old style rock and soul with Keep It Hid, and though the goin' by his own name thing may imply a solo endeavor, he packs with him the punch of a five-piece outfit, The Fast Five. Truth be told, they are sure to rock out with a seriousness. more ›

Well, it's hardly an ACL "aftershow" if it takes place prior to the Festival, but Emo's is hosting a performance by School of Seven Bells and Phantogram this evening. Click through after the jump for your chance to win tickets. more ›

We're mostly repeating ourselves here, but read on for more information on this action-packed triple bill at Emo's Indoors along with an opportunity to win a pair of tickets to the now sold out gig.

From our ACL artist preview: "Providence's Deer Tick started out as a one-man band, but have become a quartet over the past few years. Incorporating influences such as Roy Orbison, Richie Valens, and early Van Morrison, the group plays a fairly minimal and gritty brand of rock that is just as classic as it is indie. more ›

Austin’s own Brownout!, the not-so-secret Latin funk alter-ego of the grammy-recognized, Prince-backing Grupo Fantasma, are celebrating the release of their sophomore album Aguilas and Cobras tomorrow night at the Mohawk. While their first record, the mostly instrumental Homenaje (literal translation, Homage) paid tribute to the band’s funk and soul forebears, Aguilas and Cobras sees the group experimenting with vocals, adding psychedelic elements, and even coloring a song or two with the occasional tinge of disco, without sacrificing the vintage beats and hard-edged soul that is the core of the group’s sound. more ›

If there's a musical genre that Elvis Costello has missed over the past 30 years, hold on a year or two and he'll probably record an album to cover the omission. The eclectic nature of Costello's prolific catalog began all the way back in 1981 with Almost Blue, a collection of country covers that featured Hank Williams and Gram Parsons tunes. Since then, he's often veered away from his main job as a rock singer-songwriter to tackle chamber pop (1982's Imperial Bedroom), roots rock (1986's amazing King Of America), classical (1993's The Juliet Letters), easy listening (1998's Burt Bacharach collaboration Painted From Memory), torch songs (2003's North), and even opera (2004's Il Sogno). In recent years, he's done collaboration albums with both New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint and indie-pop darlings Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. Confused yet? more ›

The Warlocks truck in from LA tonight to bring their hypnotic, neo-psychedelic shoegaze to the Parish Room in support of their recent and arguably best album, The Mirror Explodes. Led by Bobby Hecksher, singer/guitarist and, for all intents and purposes, the only constant member of the band, The Warlocks are compatriots in life and sound of The Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Spacemen 3. For the decade they’ve been in existence, The Warlocks have mostly followed in the grand tradition of the heavy pop psychedelia and deep, droning grooves purveyed by The Velvet Underground and Jesus and Mary Chain; however, The Mirror Explodes is noticeably more menacing than their previous efforts, and finds the band branching out to include the influence of My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze in general. more ›

We're proud to present his next Austin show, Friday, August 7 at Emo's. He'll be playing alongside Learning Secrets, Markus w/ a K and DJ Richard Gear. Learning Secrets provides an electro-funk disco mix, which should be a gentle intro for the maniacal presentation of Franki Chan. more ›

Mates of State were just here, but we're not complaining. Last year's ACL festival seems like ages ago now that spring has broken in, and between twitterpated birds and post-SX sunburns, we're quite in the mood for lilting male-female harmonies and delicate keys. more ›

KLRU will be taping an episode of Austin City Limits featuring My Morning Jacket on Monday, August 25, at 8 p.m. We'll be giving away a pair of space-available tickets during two separate giveaways this afternoon, one between 3-3:30 p.m. and the second between 4:30-5 p.m. The first folks to fill out each contest form when it goes live on our Weekly IST List page gets 'em. If you miss today's chance, KLRU will be holding a separate contest on their ACL Blog tomorrow. [Weekly IST List] [KLRU's Austin City Limits Blog] more ›

The first big non-SXSW show announcement of 2008 is here, and guess what: it's a massive dance party. Straight out of Paris, the electronic duo known as Justice will kick off their US tour at Stubb's on Monday, March 3rd. This is actually a small venue for the band - just a week after the Austin date, they'll headline Madison Square Garden. If you've not already heard Justice, start with Daft Punk or MSTRKRFT as sonic reference points, then add some scruffy beards and leather jackets. Justice also revel in the rock 'n' roll imagery, so their live show features a huge backlit cross (pictured at right) and stacks upon stacks of Marshall guitar amps to blow everyone right out of the venue. The band are touring in support of 2007 album †, which spawned the hit single "D.A.N.C.E." and was quite the critical darling as well. Their set at Coachella '07 was widely praised as a festival highlight, so this March gig should be something special. more ›

Psst, guess what? Refraction Arts has added a show to their blockbuster remount of The Assumption. With reported shenanigans of mustache thievery (bet it was the all-powerful mustache of man-nation) and scores of "terrifying" ad-libbed lines (a la the master, Tim Conway), it's clear these players are having way too much fun. So they're offering up "Wild Winter Wonder-F#@king-Land Wednesday," a pay-what-you-can performance, night after tomorrow. If you want to skip that awkward, "how much can I pay" moment, we've got a pair of free tickets to blow out to one lucky reader. more ›